Christmas is what.

[Pasithea]

Ok so all the posts about Christmas. Very few about religion or winter solstice.

So why do people celebrate at Christmas

Am I AIBU to think that it’s hypocritical if you don’t celebrate either solstice or the birth of Jesus. ????????

It's like the celebration of Oestrus.
Us plebs want Easter eggs because Jesus died.

We as a nation have decided to ignore the Morris Dancing, the fertility sacrifices and the weaving of the vine in order to eat chocolate eggs, hunt for a mythical bunny and gorge.

We should be dancing naked , through the Forest of Dean , holding candles and eating roast vine weevils.

Seriously...

It's the end of a year. And another shitty year too.

People like to celebrate. People need focal points. People want excuses.
Do these excuses need to be etched on granite tablets?
People celebrated long, long before Jesus , mythically walked upon this Earth.

Well I’m a Christian so I do celebrate that. But it’s also about giving, family, time off work*! It’s a lovely time for non-Christians as well 😊
*I know this isn’t everyone, including my DH!

It's an important Christian feast and gives great cause to celebrate with food, drink, family and gifts. Love it.

I love singing so I’d like to go to church but I can’t stand all the communion stuff and the shaking of hands with strangers. It’s a bit weird.

We celebrate our appreciation for each other and what we have. I don’t think you have to be religious to celebrate Christmas.

It's lighting the dark with hope that it. However else it's dressed up that's it in a nutshell.

I like the traditions. There's a comfort in letting yourself drift along with them. I'm sad the days of sitting in a school hall listening to 30 kids mangle Away in a manger are gone.

I like the Xmas story. I like wondering what actually prompted it, how it became THE myth, because I'm interested in how myths emergeand what possible truths lie in them.

I hate, hate, hate winter, but love the magic of the shortest day and that idea of the world just turning, with everything buried underground waiting to grow again.

I love the the gathering of food, I like the shopping for gifts, I adore putting extra light inside and outside the house.
It's a midwinter feast and a gathering of folk. It's a bright time in the cold and darkness. It's a celebration. It's a time that we all do roughly the same thing and we all benefit from the shared kindness, warmth and togetherness.
It's my wonderful midwinter feast that I look forward to and take joy from others doing their own thing their own way.

I am Pagan and do actually celebrate the solstice myself, but I think Christmas is actually more of a cultural holiday and my husband still prefers to open presents on Christmas Day, but we feast on both! I grew up in an Atheist family and the stuff about Jesus being born etc was talked about in school, but not at home. I secretly just giggle that a lot of the traditions are pagan but enjoy them nonetheless. I wish we would scale back a bit on the endless presents and pressure for it to be picture perfect and outdo ourselves every year. It's meant to be a time to relax and reflex.
It very well could have been the birth of some Middle Eastern dude called Jesus, but I don't consider him a holy figure.

Speaking as a Catholic scholar of pre-Christian religions :)

No. As soon as humanity figured out the astronomical link between ‘holy shit it’s so dark it’s actually light from now’ and ‘thank fuck for that, let’s eat the hams and get leathered’ it was absolutely open season celebration-wise.

As the song goes: Enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think.

@PuppyMonkey

All just made up bollocks though isn’t it, so what does it matter? Nice excuse to celebrate and have a jolly time at a horrid time of year.

Yup. This.

I’m atheist.

Christmas for me is a time to have a rest, celebrate the end of a year and start of a new one, get together with family, enjoy some food we don’t usually have, treat each other and ourselves and when DC were smaller to have some joy in the “magic’ of Santa.

@PuppyMonkey

All just made up bollocks though isn’t it, so what does it matter? Nice excuse to celebrate and have a jolly time at a horrid time of year.

This with -Christmas- bells on

Jesus turned water into wine. I will celebrate his birthday as I do every year - by turning the wine back into water.

@Tillsforthrills

The birth of Christ is unlikely to have been on 25th December.

Lots of people have to celebrate their "birthday" when they don't know when it really is. The chosen date becomes their birthday. Lots of refugee kids who are unaccompanied and/or undocumented have 1st January as their official birthday. It would be a bit sad if they could never celebrate because no one can prove the date they were actually born.

It would be a bit sad if they could never celebrate because no one can prove the date they were actually born.

Yes but Jesus isn’t actually hanging around expecting a party, is he? So it doesn’t matter if no one celebrated his birth

@MaryAndGerryLivingInDerry

It would be a bit sad if they could never celebrate because no one can prove the date they were actually born.

Yes but Jesus isn’t actually hanging around expecting a party, is he? So it doesn’t matter if no one celebrated his birth

Well it matters to Christians so I think my point is valid, we don't know when his birthday is so we have picked a day. I can't see why that would be a problem to anyone.

I can't see why that would be a problem to anyone.

I can’t see that anyone has said it is.

Google 'Saturnalia'. Our present Christmas actually has more in common with this celebration.

@MaryAndGerryLivingInDerry

I can't see why that would be a problem to anyone.

I can’t see that anyone has said it is.

Well more than one person has said he wasn't born on the 25th December so presumably they thought it was significant or why bring it up?

YABU. People can do what they want to. I don't have a religion but Christmas is about food and films and presents for me. Not Jesus.

There’s a reason that the Christians hijacked the pagan Yuletide. The turning of the earth gives northern hemisphere, non-tropical nations like the UK a pretty bleak mid-winter.

Celebrating, lighting candles, coming together, sharing a feast at the darkest mid-point of the year is a chance to look back at the times of plenty and look forward to brighter days that we know are coming.

You don’t have to believe in the supernatural to feel it. It is a secular pleasure as well. “That’s why the carols make you cry.” Don’t let the Christians think they own Christmas.

“You loved it as a kid, and now you need it more than you ever did
It's because of the dark; we see the beauty in the spark
That's why, that's why the carols make you cry
Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy
Tinsel on the tree, yes I see
The holly on the door, like before
The candles in the gloom, light the room
The Sally Army band, yes I understand
So light the winds of fire,
And watch as the flames grow higher
We'll gather up our fears
And face down all the coming years
All that they destroy
And in their face we throw our
Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy
It's why, we hang the lights so high
And gaze at the glow of silver birches in the snow
Because of the dark, we see the beauty in the spark
We must be alright, if we could make up Christmas night.”

Merry Christmas, Mumsnet

I’m celebrating Yule/ Solstice this year because my kids aren’t with me. I’m with some of my family (parents and my brother, whose wife has gone to her family abroad) but it doesn’t feel like Christmas as such without the kids.

Will have Christmas on the 28th!

People can celebrate as they damn well choose!

I've no idea why so many people are determined to force others to celebrate like they do. Why do they care?

Yes you are being unreasonable. HTH

Everything evolves, OP. Language, religion, traditions, many aspects of culture. Christmas was once a pagan festival of a different name, adopted by the Christians, now celebrated as part of our traditions and culture, as others have said. Its doesn't make it any less significant or wonderful. Christians will still enjoy the religious aspect of it. Others will enjoy whatever it means to them.